Acidic vs Alkaline

I've been hearing about acidic and alkaline foods a lot lately. I realize that many acidic foods are already avoided while living primarily, but some are not. For example, I love eggs and can't imagine not eating them; they're apparently acidic. Is the acidic/alkaline hype regarding food to be disregarded? Is it just another popular fad right now? What's the deal? Any thoughts?

My chiro has had me researching this. It is thought that maintaining alkalinity in the body prevents disease and slows the aging process.

Most protein sources are acidic. Vegetables and fruits are generally alkaline. For this reason, I am trying to up my veg and fruit intake. For reference acid / alkaline food lists can be found on the internet. One easy suggestion he gave me was to add lemon juice to my water. (Lemons, believe it or not, promote alkalinity in the body.)

The acid / alkaline concept fits well within the Paleo framework. I am doing this primarily because my Mom died of ovarian cancer. Any steps I can take to protect myself are worth it. Time will tell if any of this made a difference.

A friend of mine had this fancy water machine that produces slightly alkaline water (pH 9.5 or so). It was very expensive but she swore by it, so I researched it a little, wanting to understand what the big deal is. The admittedly small amount of research I did said that your stomach and intestines take care of this for you. It doesn't matter if your water/food is slightly alkaline or acidic, your body ends up bringing everything in there to a constant pH (acidic in the stomach, alkaline in the intestines).

As an aside, that machine produced tasty water, but it sure did leave white residue on everything it touched. Was a pain to keep glasses clean. I never figured out why.

Acidic vs Alkaline

It can't hurt.

If you want to balance out the acidity of proteins/coffee, you can drink lemon or ACV water. They are both acidic when ingested, but are processed by the body in such a way that they become alkaline in the body. Plus lemons/ACV are both relatively cheap.

Green juices are also good for alkalinizing your body. Vegans believe it is best drunk first thing in the morn but ... They are vegans. Lol.

Supposedly 7.4 (slightly alkaline) is an ideal pH. I haven't seen any sort of reputable scientific research on this but I am not going to bash it either.

(I don't worry about pH, but I do drink lemon water relatively often because it tastes good anyway)

I don't buy into that concept. While it's true that if your blood becomes acidic you are sick. It's more likely that your blood is acidic because you are sick. Our bodies have a pretty tight control over PH level and to think that what we put into our mouths could significantly modify our blood or tissue PH levels just doesn't seem very likely. And the flip side is that if you are too alkaline, you will also be sick. Nope, don't believe it.

Acidic vs Alkaline

Originally Posted by Black Timber

I don't buy into that concept. While it's true that if your blood becomes acidic you are sick. It's more likely that your blood is acidic because you are sick. Our bodies have a pretty tight control over PH level and to think that what we put into our mouths could significantly modify our blood or tissue PH levels just doesn't seem very likely. And the flip side is that if you are too alkaline, you will also be sick. Nope, don't believe it.

The point behind pH diet (not that I buy it either) is exactly the buffer theory... Ie. That our bodies will try to maintain homeostasis... Will affect body's performance through affecting the enzymes and transport systems.

Data points of body pH between 6.8-7.6 or so is common. (You can test this on yourself... Eat nothing but greens for a week vs eat nothing but meat for a week). One might think that is a "narrow" range unless one realizes that the pH scale is a *logarithmic* scale... Where the difference between 6 and 7 is by a factor of 10 (10 particles of [H+] vs 100 particles).

HOW does your body remain in that range? Through biochem buffer systems. Proteins (ie. Enzymes, transporters, etc) have to lose or gain a H+ ion. This in turn affects the overall conformation (3D shape of the protein) as well as net charge of the protein (since H+ has a positive charge), which in turn affects the function of the protein.

Hence it is the act of buffering (keeping body in a narrow pH range) that affects how efficiently your body's enzymes are.

It's crap and has no basis in science. No mechanism of action has been put forward for how something can change your "body's pH". Your blood will (and has to be) in a tight range or you will die. You have multiple fail safe processes against it going too far out of alignment. If it's a property of the food being an acid or base, then your stomach acid will be making everything acidic, except for really strong bases (which kill you). However, there appears to some some reason why foods that are a base or an acid somehow become the opposite. Foods that are acidic (lemon, for example) somehow become a base in the body, while others (milk) stay an acid.

It's crap and has no basis in science. No mechanism of action has been put forward for how something can change your "body's pH". Your blood will (and has to be) in a tight range or you will die. You have multiple fail safe processes against it going too far out of alignment. If it's a property of the food being an acid or base, then your stomach acid will be making everything acidic, except for really strong bases (which kill you). However, there appears to some some reason why foods that are a base or an acid somehow become the opposite. Foods that are acidic (lemon, for example) somehow become a base in the body, while others (milk) stay an acid.

M.

You have to ask HOW the body keeps such a tight PH range. It's not by magic.

An acidic diet, high in meat and grains is a sure fire way to get diseases of inflammation and demineralization.

You have to ask HOW the body keeps such a tight PH range. It's not by magic.

An acidic diet, high in meat and grains is a sure fire way to get diseases of inflammation and demineralization.

Yeah Mark, I was just about the say the same thing, piggy-backing off of turquoise...of course the body has to stay within a certain pH, but what about the stress on the mechanisms that keep it that way? I mean, the US has the highest consumption of dairy in the world, an acidic food, but also the highest rates of osteoperosis. It is thought that the high acid diet causes the kidneys to immediately call on the most availabe antacid in the system, which is calcium from the bones, which would explain this. Is that the real answer? I have no idea, maybe it's just bc Americans aren't active.

I don't know the answer, but I can't stand when people just dismiss it as pseudo-science just because the blood ph stays within a certain range...well duh! I mean my cortisol stays within a certain range too so I don't die, but do you know how stressed my adrenals have been to keep it that way? Come on.